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Friday, October 12, 2018

The Almost Invisible Alien

SPOILER ALERT FOR ANY DOCTOR WHO
FANS!!! I’m going to be talking about a Season 5 (Eleventh Doctor) episode
today.

The episode features the Doctor
and Amy, his companion, traveling back to nineteenth century France to meet
Vincent van Gogh and take care of an alien he’d painted in
a church. Whilst taking care of the alien, the Doctor finds van Gogh
having an emotional breakdown that very much reminded me of my experiences with
depression. Though there is no consensus about what van Gogh’s mental disorder
was, the writers of Doctor Who portray it as a bipolar disorder. As I watched
the episode, van Gogh mourning his loneliness, misery, and hopelessness, I was
reminded of my own episodes of depression, feeling that I have no hope and I
eventually all those close to me will leave me. Yet I can also relate to how
only a little while later, van Gogh had cried it out and was a happy person
again. He says that occasionally he’d be tormented by those moods, but then
suddenly he’d be okay. Sometimes I feel like I can go days or weeks at a time
feeling completely happy… and then an episode hits and I’m upset for a day, a
few days, a week, or who knows how long. It wasn’t until the end of the episode
when the Doctor takes van Gogh to the present day and he sees a museum full of
his own work that he believes his life was worth something.

Depression, bipolar, and other
mental disorders are a huge trial for many. One source I looked
at said that about 10% of the US adult population deals with depression. Another
statistic said that about 2.6% of the population deals with bipolar.
Another thing I want to touch on here is suicide. Like van Gogh eventually took
his life, there are many that feel mortality is too painful and so they take their
own life to ease the pain. One
website told me that in 2010 it was reported that there were 38,364
deaths in the United States. The same website says that 90% of people who die
by suicide have a diagnosable and treatable psychiatric disorder at the time of
their death. And what about the other 10%? Does that mean that that 10% without
a diagnosable disorder could have been helped? Perhaps saved?

Back in the 1980s, Elder Ballard
said about suicide, “Obviously, we do not know the full circumstances
surrounding every suicide. Only the Lord knows all the details, and he it is
who will judge our actions here on earth. When he does judge us, I feel he will
take all things into consideration: our genetic and chemical makeup, our mental
state, our intellectual capacity, the teachings we have received, the
traditions of our fathers, our health, and so forth.”

It’s important to show love to
those around us, because as the saying goes “everyone you meet is fighting a
hard battle” but oftentimes we can’t see that. Like in the Doctor Who episode,
the alien is invisible to all except van Gogh. He’s labeled as crazy and mad.
Even when the Doctor and Amy try to help him with the alien, they’re left
pretty helpless because the only person who can see it clearly is van Gogh. It
is just like depression and other mental illnesses. I have felt many times like
I am fighting an alien that only I can see.

There is help though. If you are
struggling with depression, bipolar, or another mental illness, see a doctor or
see a psychiatrist. All else fails, call this number for the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255. Human life is too precious to give up so
easily. Keep trying. No matter how many times you fall, keep trying, because
you’ll make it to eternal life if you just keep trying to keep the
commandments.